Not railroads. I know Dragonlance has had some railroady adventures in its past. Price of Courage was good about having a setup, several parts that cold be taken in any order, then a climax. The idea being more of a general outline of events to happen, but giving the illusion of total freedom (what Tracy Hickman refers to as a "closed matrix")

I like a lot of what I've seen from Paizo. I'd rather stay away from dungeon crawls. While fun, they don't seem to have a lot of plot.

I also want to stay away from adventures that are tactical in nature, like what WotC puts out. What brought this on initially is that I'm running the Free RPG Day adventure for Dark Sun, Bloodsand Arena. I find that I'm not enjoying it as much as I did with some of the adventures I used to play in 2e.

I also want to stay away from adventures that are tactical in nature, like what WotC puts out. What brought this on initially is that I'm running the Free RPG Day adventure for Dark Sun, Bloodsand Arena. I find that I'm not enjoying it as much as I did with some of the adventures I used to play in 2e.

At the risk of starting an edition war or appearing to flame, I think that's also partially a function of D&D 4th edition. It is--let's face it--more tactical in nature than previous editions.

That's not to say you can't inject "story" into the game, but that's up to YOU as DM to provide that incentive.

An idea might be to adapt 2nd (or even 3.x ) edition adventures into 4th edition. Hew closer to the 'heart' or 'spirit' of how the adventure was written in that previous edition while using the 4th edition rules engine to accomplish only the combat portions.

4E does have the distinction of putting tactics ahead of story. At least, that has been my experience with the game so far.

I think that most modules could be run as a story, if you are willing to thin out the rules and simplify the options. I've run Amber Diceless and it has almost zero detail in the mechanic (and no dice at all), so the story has to take the forefront. I can take a DCC module and run an Amber Diceless rules set, but it takes a lot of experience and more realistically a rules lite system will get the job done better than a "no rules" system.

I guess what I'm saying is that thick rule books tend to breed certain styles of play and thin rule books breed a different style. Both types can be fun, but for a story-based game I'd stress looking for a thin rulebook. I'm partial to OD&D and C&C, but there are other games out there that can work as well. (S&W White Box, for example, is a free download and is quite rules lite.)

Most of the DCC modules aren't just random dungeon crawls, but focus on a story in the midst of the dungeon crawl. I'd go to my local hobby store, read the back of some modules, and pick one I liked. Then run it with a rules-lite rules set.

"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own." -- Gary Gygax"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" -- Dave Arneson

4E does have the distinction of putting tactics ahead of story. At least, that has been my experience with the game so far.

The problem with suggesting a different system is that Dragonhelm likes the 4e system. While 4e may not put much focus on fluff, the game works perfectly fine with fluff. My players are very captivated by the story of my campaign. My brother has been running my initial adventures for D&D Encounters since our store never got Season 3 and the players seem to love it. They wanted to continue with the adventure instead of doing season 3 even if it had showed up. One of them requested more information on the setting. (In case anyone is curious my brother blogs about the non-d&d encounters. Here is the most recent at the time of this post.)

"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own." -- Gary Gygax"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" -- Dave Arneson

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum